The One Tool You Need for Planning a Novel

A few sentences scribbled on a paper here, some notes on post-its, a few ideas thrown in your phone at night…oh my! Writing a novel can get disorganized quite quickly. By jotting ideas and notes and paragraphs here and there, you’re sure to lose some information.

In this post, I will show you the perfect tool for brainstorming, planning, writing, editing, and organizing your novel. It’s free to use and syncs to multiple devices so you will always have your story at your fingertips. I haven’t used anything else since discovering it!

The One Tool You Need for Planning a Novel Pinterest Image

How I Use Notion for Writing

I’ve tried everything for writing from simple notebooks to physical storyboards. Digital tools never lasted for me either. I’ve tried Word, Google Docs, Trello, specific apps made for writing, etc., but I seemed to always be looking for something better.

Every writer is different, so not every method will work for every person. Personally, I like the freedom of writing in a notebook. However, I am someone who likes to write on the go and at night which isn’t great for pen-and-paper writing. Also, there’s no way to create backups of your work, and that always worries me.

So, I figured I’d be better with digital writing, and tried a few apps and tools, but nothing stuck. My problem is I would always have parts of my novel stored in different places—one app for planning, one app for keeping notes, one for drafting, etc.—and it was hard to keep track of it all.

Luckily, I found a tool that meets all my needs and helps me to organize my writing. Notion. It’s free to use and you can create outlines, storyboards, link to stuff, draft, edit—literally everything all in one place!

Now, I pretty much solely use Notion to write. I even created a Novel Writing Planner template (available on my Etsy store) so you can get straight to writing. Because Notion is so customizable, it can take some time to figure out everything you can do and find your perfect setup. It took me months to finally find a setup that works for me (and is pretty because I like things to look nice).

That’s why I created a template for you—skip the customizing and get straight to the writing.

Planning and Outlining

The section I find to be most helpful and beneficial is planning and outlining. Because these tasks are so critical in novel writing, they are my most used and most revisited. I keep sections for:

the main plot points: to keep the story on track
a beat sheet: for creating a rough outline of the plot
a final outline: which is quite detailed and allows me to make steady progress without getting stuck

Tracking Progress

As someone who tends to procrastinate many things, but especially writing, I find it helpful to track my progress. I keep a to-do list of each task for completing my novel and keep track of the word count. If you’re someone who enjoys planning a timeline for novel writing, that option is also available in Notion. For me, though, I tend to stick to tracking the word count.

Inspiration Boards

Visually being able to see aspects of your novel can help you to write more vividly. It can also bring inspiration when you get stuck. That’s why I enjoy the ability to add images in Notion.

I have a board on Pinterest I use as inspiration and I add photos that feel similar to the characters, locations, and atmosphere I’m trying to cultivate. Then, I add the pictures to my Inspiration board in Notion. Obviously, it’s not necessary to have the inspiration in two places, but I like having everything right in one place.

Character Information

With Notion, you can easily add any information about the characters of your story. I like adding all the details about my characters, their purpose in the story, and an image of someone I imagine them to look like.

I find myself often updating this section as I expand the story, and it’s something I frequently refer back to.

My Novel Planning Template

I designed this template specifically for what I would want in a novel planner. (Yes, I use this template for my own writing, too!) Personally, I enjoy aesthetically pleasing things, so I wanted to make it nice to look at. However, it also needed to be practical so I’d actually use it (and keep using it). I also wanted to have sections for absolutely every aspect of my novel. Looking for story information between different tools is infuriating and leads to things getting lost, so having space for everything was quite important.